Non-denominational pastors found to hold more biblical views – survey by Ryan Foley for Christian Today
A new survey reveals that pastors of non-denominational churches are more likely to hold a biblical worldview than pastors belonging to all other denominations.
The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the seventh installment of its American Worldview Inventory Tuesday. The latest wave of research released builds on previous data that found only 37% of pastors hold a biblical worldview and analyzes the views of pastors by denomination.
The survey is based on responses from 1,000 Christian pastors to 54 questions collected in February and March 2022. It examined the frequency with which 75% or more of pastors in a particular denomination agreed with 17 statements outlining beliefs that either embrace or reject a biblical worldview. Findings reveal that at least 75% of pastors leading non-denominational Christian and Christian independent denominations held biblical views on 12 of the matters addressed in the statements.
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Even in the five cases where more than 75% of non-denominational pastors did not subscribe to a biblical worldview on a particular issue, the share of pastors who adhered to a biblical worldview on a particular teaching never dropped below 50%. The same is true for Evangelical pastors, although leaders in this denomination only held biblical views on just four of the 17 issues.
While at least 75% of mainline Protestant pastors abided to a biblical worldview on two of the 17 matters they were asked about, at least 50% of the remaining 15 subscribed to a biblical worldview on all matters presented before them. At least 75% of Pentecostal/Charismatic and Catholic pastors possessed biblical views regarding two of the beliefs they were queried about.
Between 50% and 74% of Pentecostal/Charismatic pastors held biblical beliefs on 12 of the 17 matters examined in the survey, while less than half of pastors affiliated with this denomination maintained biblical beliefs on the remaining three. Less than 50% of Catholic pastors held biblical beliefs on 10 of the items they were questioned about, while between 50% and 74% of Catholic pastors held biblical views on the other five.
